Richard Davies Ireland

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Richard Davies Ireland QC (1816 – 11 January 1877) was an Australian politician, a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly and Attorney-General. [1] [2]

Ireland was born in Galway, educated at Trinity College Dublin (B.A., 1837) [2] and was called to the Irish bar in 1838. [3]

Ireland emigrated to Victoria in 1852, and was called to the local bar in the following year. [3] His brilliant and gratuitous defence of the Ballarat rioters brought him enormous popularity, and he was elected to represent Castlemaine Boroughs in the Assembly in 1857, and was appointed Solicitor-General in March 1858 in the John O'Shanassy Ministry, [4] retiring with his colleagues in October 1859, when he was returned for Maryborough. [3] He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1863.

Ireland joined the Richard Heales Administration as Attorney-General in November 1860, but resigned in July 1861, four months before the fall of the Ministry. When the O'Shanassy Ministry, which succeeded, came in November, Ireland again became Attorney-General, retiring with his colleagues in June 1863, he did not again hold office. [3] Ireland represented Villiers and Heytesbury from August 1861 until resigning in April 1864, he then represented Kilmore from February 1866 to December 1867. [1]

Ireland died in South Yarra, Melbourne on 11 January 1877; his wife Sophia Mary, née Carr predeceased him. Sophia's sister, Selina, was married to Henry Samuel Chapman. Ireland's daughter Harriet married John F. M. Fraser (son of the Hon. Thomas Fraser), who was appointed Q.C. in New Zealand in 1910. [5]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Richard Davies Ireland". re-member: a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851. Parliament of Victoria. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  2. 1 2 Woods, Janice Burns. "Ireland, Richard Davies (1815–1877)". Australian Dictionary of Biography . Melbourne University Press. ISSN   1833-7538 . Retrieved 2 January 2014– via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Mennell, Philip (1892). "Ireland, Hon. Richard Davies"  . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
  4. ↑ "Appointment Solicitor General Richard Ireland MLA". Victorian Government Gazette. 10 March 1858. p. 1858:477.
  5. ↑ Cyclopedia Company Limited (1905). "Barristers and Solicitors". The Cyclopedia of New Zealand : Otago & Southland Provincial Districts. Christchurch: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand . Retrieved 13 April 2021.
Victorian Legislative Assembly
Preceded by Member for Castlemaine Boroughs
August 1857 – August 1859
With: Robert Sitwell 		District abolished
New district Member for Maryborough
October 1859 – December 1860
With: Michael Prendergast 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member for Villiers and Heytesbury
August 1861 – April 1864
With: Charles Gavan Duffy 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member for Kilmore
February 1866 – December 1867		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Solicitor-General of Victoria
March 1858 – October 1858		Succeeded by
Preceded by Attorney-General of Victoria
November 1860 – July 1861		Succeeded by
Preceded by Attorney-General of Victoria
November 1861 – June 1863		Succeeded by
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